


Accidental Knight In Blue Parka

by saruma_aki



Series: Coldflash Week 2017 A [1]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Clubbing, Coldflash Week 2017, Fluff, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Light Angst, M/M, Minor Violence, Original Character(s), Protective Leonard Snart, Tumblr: coldflashweek, they're minor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-09
Updated: 2017-04-09
Packaged: 2018-10-16 15:47:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10574472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saruma_aki/pseuds/saruma_aki
Summary: He wouldn't say he was overly-protective. He was more reasonably so and certainly more subtle than most people would be. But, if he was being perfectly honest, he never really thought he'd be protective of a certain resident speedster, but he also never expected to meet someone who could run at the speed of light, so clearly he didn't always see everything coming.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is for Day One of Coldflash Week 2017
> 
> Prompt: Jealousy/Protectiveness
> 
> I hope you all enjoy! This is my first time doing something like this, so I'm kind of seriously excited for it.

Leonard didn’t know when exactly Barry started to be such an important person to him.

Maybe it had been when they first met and Leonard had watched him speed off in disbelief and anger. Or maybe it had been when Barry left him in a forest to find his own way out with a cocky little smirk and that sure, confident tone. Maybe it had been when Barry called on him for help, the way he looked at Leonard when he asked him why he didn’t shoot Barry, too—he still didn’t know why he hadn’t.

Maybe it was when Barry stopped heist after heist, most times not actually stopping anything from happening but instead bantering with Leonard while Lisa or Mick or both got away with the prize. Maybe it was when Barry looked for him on Lisa’s request and looked so honestly confused when Leonard froze him and followed his father out the door. Maybe it was when Barry looked at him in concern while Leonard dodged every move his father made to touch him or flinched almost unnoticeably whenever the man so much as lifted a finger.

He didn’t know when.

He knew it was before Barry kissed him, hot and fierce in the corner of the warehouse Leonard had been planning in, his hands gripping Leonard’s hips tightly. He knew it was before they actually made themselves an item.

That was probably where the surge of protectiveness came from.

He had it when it came to Lisa and he had it when it came to Mick. For some reason, though, he had never thought he would get it for Barry. Maybe it was because he had known Mick for years before he felt it for him and he had grown up protecting Lisa so he had always had it. He guessed the reason he felt it so soon was because Barry had saved Lisa’s life when he couldn’t.

The Rogues were known for being powerful and skilled. They weren’t all composed of meta-humans, though. The majority was regular old humans with the occasional meta-human here and there. No one was really a member for life, except for Leonard. He had made them; a Rogue was all he could really be.

And there was a new meta-human helping them out with their heist this time. Leonard was hesitant to use her, felt like she was to overcome by her emotions, but he worked her into the plan anyway, made sure she stayed focused despite any possible distractions, tested and retested her ability.

She could warp a person’s perception of the space around them and drive someone mad. He didn’t need her to do that. He just needed her to confuse the security guards long enough for them to get in and out with no problems.

But there was a problem because Barry showed up and, just as Leonard feared, she got overwhelmed with her emotions and when he entered the room, the security cameras disabled and the guards on the ground unconscious, it was to see Barry kneeling, his eyes pressed shut, his expression one of panic when his eyes flew open.

His gun was in his hand and against her head in a matter of moments, gaze hard as he glared down at her. “Stop,” he ordered her and she stared at him wide eyed. He adjusted his grip and caught a part of her shoulder with a blast, making her cry out in pain, her focus breaking, and Leonard watched Barry crumble, his hands pressing hard against the floor.

The girl looked at him, tears brimming in her eyes, betrayal etched into the lines of her face.

“Go to the hospital, get that treated, you’ll be fine,” he muttered. “Your cut will be ready when you come get it.” His eyes were hard when they focused on her again. “Listen next time.”

She left and Leonard turned his attention on Barry who was shuddering against the floor, eyes squeezed firmly shut like he didn’t want to look at his surroundings and Leonard swallowed back the bile rising in his throat.

“Look at me, Scarlet, open your eyes,” he coaxed, shifting Barry’s body, gritting his teeth when Barry thrashed against the shift in balance, the displacement of his place in space. “It’s done; she’s gone, you’re fine,” he whispered, gun tucked in his holster.

They sat there for a few minutes, thankfully no police having arrived yet as the security guards hadn’t been able to call for the cops in time, but there would be no doubt that they’d be there soon. Leonard didn’t care, though. He simply cared about Barry being alright.

“The hell was that?”

He sighed in relief, helping Barry struggle to his feet, still looking off kilter. “A new meta,” he responded curtly, looking about himself. “I have to get going. Are you going to be fine?”

Barry nodded, still looking disoriented, but like he’d be fine in a few moments. “I will, but what about them,” he motioned to the fallen security guards.

“They’ll be fine—definitely take longer than you to recover, but they’ll be fine.”

 

 

 

That had been the first time.

 

 

 

He kind of wished it had been the last time.

 

 

 

The memory of what happened that day haunted Leonard’s subconscious at all moments. Barry had assured him it wasn’t his fault and that if he had ever run into that meta-human, which was likely considering his super-hero work, the same thing would have happened—not to mention she expressly went against Leonard’s orders, so it wasn’t Leonard’s fault in anyway.

And he knew that, but it was hard to just accept that when some nights he had to drag Barry off the bed and to the floor and let him feel the solidity of the wood before he would stop thrashing and screaming in his sleep and wake from the haze of the memory to look up at Leonard like he had that night.

Leonard knew a thing or two about living with guilt. He lived with it the second Lisa came into his life and he had to feel the crushing weight of it every time Lewis laid a hand on her and he couldn’t stop him and every time Leonard made a mistake and Lisa would end up paying for his inadequacy after Leonard suffered his own lesson. He lived with it whenever Ferris Air was even mentioned, the moment of betrayal, lived with it when he once again couldn’t stop Lewis from hurting Lisa even years later, felt it when some poor sod ended up dead because someone didn’t listen to him again.

He didn’t let it control him or eclipse his relationship with the few people he cared about, but it was there and it fueled his drive to do better by the people he held close to his heart.

And that was when the second incident rolled around.

He wasn’t one hundred percent sure why Barry was there, if he was being perfectly honest. He knew that Cisco and Caitlin were pretty sure a meta-human was lurking around in the gang Leonard had to have a meeting with because they had been encroaching on Rogue territory and that did not fly with Leonard—not at all.

Unfortunately, though, he was already in a state when the gang showed up, his skin crawling and the muscle in his jaw twitching. Barry kept sending him glances, concern clear on his face that he couldn’t show clearly while in the persona of ‘Sam’—which was an awful persona by every bad guy standard, including subpar bad guy standards.

The man in the front was the leader—because apparently they liked to be predictable. The man was covered in tattoos and had an unruly beard. He had a stocky build, like Mick’s, but he was just a few inches taller than Leonard. There was a monstrosity of a bun his hair was pulled into sitting on the top of his head and he was decked out in full on leather.

It was like they were _trying_ to be cliché.

Leonard walked alongside his own Rogues, never one to walk in the middle. It made him too easy of a target. There was no problem with aiming to shoot someone if they were in the middle, but there was more maneuvering if they were on the ends. Mick was there standing off to the other side, Barry just off center to the left, his lips pursed slightly.

“Glad to see you could make it,” Leonard drawled, his hands tucked in the pockets of his parka. There was a moment of confusion as the leader looked about to find where Leonard was, settling his eyes on him at the very end on the left with a smirk on his face. “Baldwin, right,” he drawled, slowly moving towards the center.

The man grinned, dark and dirty, his top lip hidden behind the fullness of the hair covering his upper lip. Leonard came to a stop just a few ways away from Barry so that he stood across from Baldwin, making sure he was far back enough he didn’t have to tilt his head up more than the barest bit in order to level the man with a steady gaze.

“You’ve been on my grounds.”

“You can spare some.”

He shrugged with childlike humor playing at the edges of his words, “Don’t want to.”

The man stepped forward, making Leonard have to tilt his head up just a bit more and he knew the man was doing this as a power play, was using his height to seem dominating, but Leonard had a lifetime of dealing with people like that. He simply scoffed internally, rolling in eyes in his mind while keeping a carefully neutral face on the outside. “You’re going to have to,” Baldwin rumbled, voice low and gravelly and it made Leonard’s head tilt back in exhaustion, lips curving into a smirk.

“Says who?”

“Says me,” the man responded and Leonard cocked an eyebrow.

“It would actually be ‘says I’, I think,” and Leonard wanted to knock his head against the wall as Barry spoke from just diagonally behind him and the attention of the gang flicked to him with his boyish smile and the fact that he was chewing on the inside of his cheek thoughtfully as he mulled the correction over in his head. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure it’d be ‘says I’ if you want to be grammatical.”

“Nobody asked you, boy,” Baldwin hissed and he was tugging a gun out of the back of his pants, and Leonard reacted before he really processed what he was doing. His foot lashed out, kicking the side of the man’s knee, making it bend, forcing Baldwin to end up kneeling on the floor. A knife was in his hand in a second, his heel pressing into the wrist of the man’s hand that had just barely tugged the gun out, his fingers curled around the man’s bun and tugging his head back, knife teasing at his throat.

“It’s not very nice to threaten my men like that when we’ve been so civil so far, don’t you agree,” he drawled, tone cold and disinterested even as the tip of the blade dug closer to the column of his throat so that he could feel the sharp bite every time he swallowed. “Now, I’m sure we can come to a solution.”

The man struggled against the hold and Leonard knew the guy had more muscle than him, probably more strength, but Leonard had tact and he twisted the blade, letting the tip, just the very tip, sink into the skin and make a small incision, grip tightening on the bun and yanking back, his foot grinding against the bones of the man’s wrist.

“What was that?”

The man huffed, tried to wrench himself away again, but the slow pulse of blood out of the wound made him stop, jaw clenching. “We won’t get on your grounds.”

“Good,” he grinned, shoving the man forward, wiping the blood on the knife away with a tissue, strolling to stand in front of the man. “If I find you working on our grounds again, things might get a little,” he smirked, “chilly.”

It was only after the man left that Leonard had realized why he had moved then to begin with. It hadn’t been the first time someone had pointed a gun at someone in his crew, but it was Barry the gun had been pointed at and he knew, logically, that Barry would be able to move fast enough that the bullet wouldn’t hit him, but the thought hadn’t seemed to cross his mind.

“I would’ve been fine, you know,” Barry grumbled at him where they were standing in the corner of the warehouse, his arms crossed, a small frown settled on his face.

“It’s a matter of principle,” he responded easily, and it wasn’t a lie. It was a matter of principle, of how he displayed his power. It just wasn’t the whole truth, but he wasn’t confirming or denying Barry’s hidden accusation that he had done it out of some mislead form of protectiveness. Leonard was far more subtle than that, or so he liked to think.

Barry nodded, scrubbing his hands over his face.

“I should get back and show Cisco the readings I picked up on, “he waved the little tool he had been given, “and see if we hit a match. We’re still on for tomorrow, right?”

Leonard nodded, returning Barry’s bright smile with a small quirk of his lips, watching the male leave before turning to meet Mick’s gaze across the room, the man’s brow cocked in silent question of whether or not he was okay.

His honest response was a shrug.

 

 

 

He remembered Cisco telling Barry to stick around after they had successfully brought in the meta-human from Baldwin’s gang to have him run some laps and do some tests even though Barry hadn’t eaten or gotten a moments rest.

He remembered cocking his hip, his hand resting on the cold gun and fingering the power button while he gave Cisco a very pointed.

He remembered the man’s nervous laughter as he quickly backtracked and told Barry that he should go home and rest.

He remembered nodding as if in approval while wondering what the hell was wrong with him internally.

 

 

 

He stopped questioning it after about two weeks of it just like he had stopped questioning why he glared at every man who dared to look at Lisa in bars with anything other than respect and why he snarled at anyone who tried to say Mick didn’t contribute anything to their partnership because the man contributed a lot—there wouldn’t even be a partnership if it hadn’t been for Mick.

And it was fine.

It wasn’t like Leonard was really obvious about it. He wanted Barry safe just like he wanted Lisa and Mick safe. There wasn’t really more to it. It was understandable, logical.

It only became a problem when Barry started noticing.

Neither Mick or Lisa ever noticed his little protective instinct, his need to make sure they were perfectly safe and that no harm would come to them if he could avoid it even though he knew they could very well take care of themselves.

But Barry had the help of his whole moving at the speed of light. The speedster had tried to explain it to him once.

“When I tap into it while I’m just watching, it’s like I can see everything in slow motion. I can literally see everyone breathing and count every eyelash on someone’s eye while they’re still in the process of completing that one blink.”

His response had been a simple ‘that’s creepy’ before shoving Barry’s head into the pillow playfully and reminding him that it was three in the morning and Leonard wanted to get some sleep.

“Why do you glare at Cisco so much?” Barry asked while they were sitting on the couch, a box of takeout on the coffee table, Leonard’s legs stretched out in front of him, his shoulders relaxed and head lolled back as he looked at the television with half lidded eyes.

“Because he doesn’t remember that you’re human sometimes,” he mumbled, feeling sleep and exhaustion at the corners of his awareness, wanting nothing more than to curl up in bed and go to sleep. A day of dealing with Lisa dragging him around the mall searching for the right pair of heels had him well and truly exhausted. Not to mention Barry’s seemingly endless energy and focusing to be able to catch most of what Barry was saying took even more out of him. Now, with a full stomach, all he wanted to do was sleep and not wake up for at least thirteen hours.

“What do you mean?”

Leonard shook his head, sitting up and stretching, scrubbing his hands over his face. “I’ll explain in the morning, but right now, we’re going to bed.”

Barry laughed, letting Leonard drag him to the bedroom, both of them tumbling onto the bed and trading a chaste kiss before dozing off.

 

 

 

He never did end up explaining in the morning.

 

 

 

The club they went to wasn’t all that packed. Barry had been complaining about how he couldn’t get drunk and that it was a real bummer because he missed the buzz, so Cisco had suggested going to a club because at least Barry could get the adrenaline rush of dancing.

“Is it fine if I go dance?” Barry asked him, mouth close to his ear to be heard above the music.

“I’m not your keeper,” Leonard chuckled, motioning to the dance floor. “Knock yourself out.”

He had never understood people who were so possessive of their partners they wouldn’t let them have a good time on their own. Leonard had enough faith in Barry, and Barry’s incessant drive to be good, to trust that the male wasn’t going to be unfaithful or something like that. He had never been big on clubs, anyway, and he preferred Barry enjoy himself than killing the male’s buzz because he was uncomfortable where they were. He was better at sticking to the walls of the club and avoiding being seen.

He sipped from his beer lazily, making sure to put his thumb over the top every time it left his lips. Call him paranoid, but he had no desire to be drugged—which was another reason he asked for a bottled beer instead of anything in a glass. He wasn’t really one for alcohol, though, for obvious reasons.

He watched Barry move around the dance floor, a smile on his face, looking like he was having a good time even if he couldn’t be buzzed or full-on drunk like almost everyone else on the dance floor.

Caitlin stood next to Leonard, sipping from her margarita, looking amused as Cisco sidled onto the dance floor and started busting out some rather ridiculous moves, making Barry stop and laugh, doubling over. Leonard couldn’t really see what was so funny because, while amusing, it wasn’t really something he would full out laugh over. He was fairly certain that Barry’s loud laughter was due to the fact that the adrenaline and freedom had Barry about as drunk as a few beers would have had him if he could drink.

Barry caught his eye and walked over, tugging Leonard’s beer out of his hand and taking a swig, ignoring Caitlin’s alarmed look, looking at Leonard cautiously like she thought he would blow up and attack them because Barry sipped some of his beer.

It made him wonder if Cisco and Caitlin even knew he and Barry were together.

It’s not like he and Barry were hiding their relationship. Lisa and Mick knew, mainly because they saw Barry kiss his cheek one time. And it’s not like they weren’t in contact with each other. They certainly didn’t do all that much in terms of public displays of affection, but that was more on Leonard than Barry. He just wasn’t all that comfortable with it. A lifetime of shying away from any physical contact and feeling like he’d break apart if someone touched him in any way made it sort of commonplace to avoid physical contact—and Barry understood and didn’t push. There hadn’t been much physical contact between them to begin with when they were in a public setting, so it wasn’t a really big adjustment.

“I have to go get myself one of those—what is that? It’s sour,” Barry laughed, squinting at the label when Leonard turned it to face him, his thumb over the top once again.

“Just as for a sour cherry tart bottled beer when you get up there,” Leonard told him and he watched Barry mouth it to himself, brow furrowed. “Do you want me to go up there with you?”

“That’d be best,” Barry laughed, walking to the bar and Leonard followed, figuring he might as well get another one seeing as Barry’s sips were typically more like gulps.

The bar was crowded, but they managed to get into a space and flag down the bartender to ask for the two beers. Leonard watched with a critical eye as the bartender fetched the bottles and opened them just a few feet away, making sure nothing was slipped into them. There was a reason he didn’t like bars or clubs. As the beers were passed to him he gave the bartender a twenty to pay for them, passing Barry his and settling his thumb over the top of the bottle once more.

“I’m going to go dance some more, alright?”

He nodded, shoving Barry towards the floor slightly with a small smirk, making his way back to his spot next to Caitlin. The girl looked up and gave him a curious look when he returned to standing against the wall by her, taking a slow sip of his beer—which was an actual sip, not like Barry’s fake sips that would drain the whole container. Leonard had learned the hard way not to let the male touch his hot chocolate.

He kept his eyes carefully trained on Barry, observing the dance floor as a whole, taking in the sway and grind of bodies and remembering how easy it was to pick pocket people while they were too delirious and high on life to realize all the cash in their wallet was gone. He was typically nice enough to put the wallet back where he got it from after snagging anything valuable, though. He wasn’t so cruel as to leave a drunk without at least some form of ID.

Caitlin looked over at him, her brow furrowed as she drained the last of her margarita. “I can trust you to watch our stuff if I go out and dance, right?”

He threw her a smirk. “I’m not really in the mood for a purse, so I think you’re safe.”

She nodded, her lips pursing before bobbing her head again as if to cement her decision before going to join Barry and Cisco on the dance floor, looking just a bit awkward in her pencil skirt but clearly determined to have a good time.

He commended her on her determination.

Leonard moved so that the belongings were within grabbing distance and in the corner of his field of vision before returning to watching Barry and the rest of the club, sipping his beer methodically, not really taking in the taste or the burn. He never even finished his beers anymore. The most he would ever drink was half a bottle—maybe a little bit more if he was trapped somewhere like this for too long.

“He got some good moves, don’t y’ think?” a man slurred from beside him and Leonard cast him a vague look, cringing internally at the strong smell of alcohol on the guy, taking in the flush on his cheeks and the sweat dripping down the edge of his hairline. His eyes were dazed and he looked downright wasted, stumbling a few steps closer to Leonard.

He simply nodded his head just slightly in response, not having the slightest idea as to who the guy was talking about. There were several males on the dance floor.

“I’m gon’ go talk t’ him,” the male mumbled with a drunken grin and Leonard simply nodded in response once more, watching the male stumble to the dance floor—

—and stop in front of Barry.

He couldn’t hear what they said, obviously, but he watched Barry’s reactions with a close attentiveness, knowing his expressiveness would be the best way to determine whether or not he should step in. The downside of Barry’s abilities was the fact that everyone in Central City knew about the Flash and if Barry sped away or did anything with his speed, everyone would put the dots together—well, anyone sober enough and anyone with access to the security footage.

The guy seemed to be hitting on Barry from what he could tell, going by the obvious discomfort in Barry’s posture and the strain in his smile. Being hit on, though, was nothing Leonard had to get involved with. He knew Barry could handle himself, especially with a drunk guy.

That was until the guy started becoming agitated and Leonard could see the apprehension seep into Barry’s posture. And knowing a thing or two about angry drunks, he decided now was decent time to step in.

He absently grabbed Caitlin’s purse, walking forward, sliding between people easily, his steps quickening as the guys fist drew back after seeming to be yelling and gesticulating wildly for a few moments. And he could see Barry’s tension, could see him seem to wonder how the hell he was expected to get out of this. He should be drunk by club standards and the punch was fast and unexpected, but Leonard slammed Caitlin’s purse into the side of the guy’s face just in time to throw off the trajectory of the punch and send the guy stumbling to the side.

He proceeded to wrap an arm around the falling drunk’s waist, yanking hard and artfully keeping his feet out of the way as the man began to puke, his body heaving. He handed Caitlin’s purse to her as she emerged from the dance floor at the shrieks of disgust from other dancers, watching the man bent double over Leonard’s arm seeming to be hurling everything inside of him out on the floor.

“I think I’m good on the club,” Barry whispered in his ear, hand on his shoulder, watching the poor drunk, his body shuddering through dry heaves, “are you?”

“You know I was done the second you mentioned it,” was his response, shifting his hold on the guy to pass him off to the bartender who had come over with a security guard to collect the man, looking vaguely irritated. Leonard was pretty sure he heard the bartender mutter something along the lines of ‘I should have cut him off sooner’ as he all but shoved the man into the security guard’s grip.

“I’m glad you came, though. I kind of didn’t know what to do, to be honest.”

“I could tell.”

They were making their way to the entrance, Barry telling Cisco and Caitlin they were heading out early after that little debacle, Leonard feeling his lungs yearn to take in the fresh air—well, as fresh as city air could be.

“Ah, so you were watching me?” Barry teased, knocking their shoulders together.

“Of course I was,” Leonard deadpanned, looking over at Barry. “How else was I expected to be able to laugh if you tripped and fell?”

Barry shoved him, scowling playfully at him. “That’s rude.”

“I would’ve caught it on video, too.”

“You suck.”

“I know.”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed!
> 
> You can find me on instagram ( @saruma_aki ) where I let you all know whenever I have a new fic and have lots of multi-fandom posts in between.
> 
> Feel free to leave a comment below on your thoughts! <3


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